The Lonely Planet Six Degrees concept is to explore the world's coolest cities by connecting with the people who live in them. By emphasising the human dimension of travel, Lonely Planet Six Degrees moves beyond sightseeing and offers the surest way of being whisked off your feet and fast-tracked to the heart of the city. Avoiding the well known tourist attractions, each Lonely Planet Six Degrees journey begins with a traveler arriving in a new city with just a single point of contact. From this initial encounter a chain of connectivity is forged across the city as one person leads to another and another and another. Meeting six strangers in sixty minutes, our traveller experience the city through the eyes of some of its most colourful and clued-in residents, proving that it's the people, the lives they lead, and the stories they tell that give a city its soul, rather than just the bricks and mortar.

LONELY PLANET: SIX DEGREES Auckland
Presenter Asha Gill hooks up with cartoon graffiti artist Misery to help her transforma campervan into a unique work of art. Misery takes Asha to Polynesian fashion designer and fa'fa'fine Lindah E, who co-opts Asha into an all-black wedding shoot. On K road Asha meets Reverend Mua, a freestyle rapping man of God preaching the righteous path to Auckland's Polynesian youth. Lindah hooks Asha up with Auckland fire-fighter Mags, who dangles her off the floodlights of Eden Park and then takes her high-altitude gardening off a 60-metre waterfall. Asha plants trees on tribal land with Maori chief Joe Hawke and goes hunter-gathering with master chef Garth Hokianga, plucking salad from the nearest bush and digging dinner out ofthe sand. Asha joins high-access rope worker Ed Dennis as he works on the outside of Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere.